Most businesses choose a cleaning contractor the same way: three quotes, a quick look at the numbers, and a decision. That works about half the time. The other half ends with a scope argument at month four, a change of cleaner at month seven, and the whole exercise repeated a year later.
The problem is almost never the cleaning. It is that the two sides agreed on a price without agreeing on what the price covered. Everything below is aimed at closing that gap before you sign, not after.
Start with the scope, not the price
A quote is only comparable to another quote if both are pricing the same work. Before you talk to anyone, write down what you actually need in each area of the site. It does not have to be formal - a list per room type is enough.
Then, for every line, decide the frequency. This is where most disputes begin: two contractors can both quote "kitchen clean" and mean entirely different things, one meaning benches and sink nightly, the other meaning that plus the fridge, the microwave interior and the bin store weekly.
- Daily or per-visit. The work that has to happen every time someone attends, whatever else is going on.
- Weekly. Items that build up but not overnight - skirting boards, internal glass, kitchen appliance interiors.
- Periodic. Carpet extraction, hard floor machine work, high dusting, external glass. Give these a stated interval and a stated price, not a vague promise to do them "as required".
- Excluded. Just as important. If nobody is cleaning inside the fridge or the workshop bench, write that down so the gap is a decision rather than a surprise.
The questions that separate contractors
Once the scope is written, the same questions can be put to everyone. The answers tell you far more than the hourly rate does.
- Who is actually attending my site? Ask whether the work is done by employees or subcontracted on. Neither is wrong, but subcontracted work means the person in your building has a different employer to the one on your contract, and that matters for supervision and for insurance.
- How many hours are you allowing? A price without an hour count is not a quote, it is a guess. Hours multiplied by rate is the only number that lets you sanity-check whether the scope is achievable.
- What happens when someone is sick? Every contractor has staff away. The question is whether they have a relief system or whether your site simply gets skipped.
- Who supervises, and how often do they attend? Ask for a named contact and a stated frequency of site checks. Quality problems are almost always supervision problems.
- How do I report a problem, and what is the response time? A phone number that reaches a person beats a portal that generates a ticket number.
- What is your notice period, and what happens to the price at renewal? Long lock-ins with automatic uplifts are common and negotiable.
- Can I speak to a client with a site like mine? A contractor who cleans offices well may have never touched a warehouse floor, and the reverse is just as true.
The compliance you should actually see
Ask for documents rather than assurances. A legitimate contractor will have these ready and will not be offended by the request - in Australia they get asked weekly.
- Public liability insurance. Ask for the certificate of currency, check the expiry date, and check the insured entity name matches the business you are contracting with.
- WorkCover and employer obligations. If staff are employees, there should be a WorkCover policy. If they are subcontractors, ask how that is structured.
- ABN and entity details. Verify the ABN on the ABN Lookup register and confirm the trading name matches.
- Safe work method statements and SDS. For any machine work or chemical use on your site, you are entitled to see the method statement and the safety data sheets. Your own OHS obligations do not disappear because the work is contracted out.
- Police checks and right-to-work. Reasonable to ask for, particularly where cleaners hold keys or alarm codes and attend out of hours.
- Security licensing, if guards are involved. In Victoria, private security businesses and individual operatives are licensed by Victoria Police. Ask for the licence number and check it.
Warning signs in a quote
A low price is not itself a problem. A low price that cannot be explained is.
- No site visit. Anyone quoting a building they have not walked through is pricing an assumption. It will be corrected later, upwards.
- No hours stated. See above. Ask, and watch what happens.
- Everything is "included". Periodic work has a real cost. A contractor who folds unlimited carpet cleaning and floor work into a low monthly figure has either misunderstood the site or is planning not to do it.
- A rate that cannot pay award wages. Work backwards from the total and the hours. If the implied rate does not cover the cleaning award plus superannuation, insurance, equipment, consumables and any margin at all, the shortfall is coming out of somebody, and eventually out of your service.
- Pressure to sign immediately. A discount that expires today is a sales tactic, not a price.
Run the first ninety days properly
The handover period sets the tone for the whole contract. A little structure early saves a lot of correspondence later.
- Walk the site together in week one. Not to inspect, but to agree what "done" looks like in each area while both sides are still being generous.
- Put the scope on the wall. A one-page version in the cleaner's cupboard removes most day-to-day ambiguity.
- Log issues in writing, even small ones. Three emails about the same bin is a pattern worth raising. Three verbal mentions is a disagreement about whether it was ever mentioned.
- Review at week twelve. Formally. What is working, what is not, and does the scope need adjusting now that both sides know the building.
The short version
Write the scope first, get quotes against that scope, ask for hours and insurance documents, be suspicious of prices that cannot be explained, and put ninety days of structure around the start. That is most of it. Contractors are not hard to manage once both parties are describing the same job.
If you want a second opinion on a scope you have already written, or a quote you have already been given, we are happy to look at it and tell you what we would question - send it through and we will call you back.